SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to chart the development and the inter-relationship of the concepts of Heaven and of Man in Chu Hsi's philosophy. As Chu Hsi (1130-1200) is generally regarded as having brought to its completion the unification of the doctrines of his Neo-Confucianist predecessors, it is hoped that this research will throw light both upon the central tenets of his philosophy and upon those of Sung philosophy in general. The method adopted is to use the development of these concepts as a central thread. Chu Hsi's metaphysics and ethics will then be discussed accordingly as they are relevant to this theme, although it has not been feasible to present an independent survey of these branches of his philosophy. The development of these two concepts is discussed in six chapters. In the first chapter, I give a brief account of Buddhist Idealism, to the refutation of which Chu Hsi had dedicated his whole life. In the second chapter, I describe how, in his thirties, he had used the Immanent Vitalism of the earlier Neo-Confucianists to attack the Buddhist view of Emptiness. In the third chapter, I discuss how he struggled, in his forties, to construct his own metaphysics, after becoming disillusioned with the approach to the Way taught by the Immanent Vitalists. In the fourth and fifth chapters, I discuss both the development of the ideas of Principle, Material Force, Nature, Mind, and moral cultivation, and their systematisation in his later metaphysics. In the final chapter, I explain the relation between Heaven and Man within this system, and show the way in which it differs from its Buddhist counterpart.